All section
This article is more than 1 year old.
Sonal Sharma, a milkman's daughter, has defied the odds and qualified to become a judge in her first attempt at the Rajasthan Judicial Service (RJS) examination 2018.
The 26-year-old who used to study in a cowshed while helping her family earn their livelihood has bagged three gold medals for topping BA, LLB and LLM exams. She will be posted as a first-class magistrate in a sessions court in the state after a year's training.
"My parents have worked hard to provide the best education to us. My father took numerous loans to meet the expenses in educating us but never complained. Now I can give them a comfortable life," she said.
A typical day in Sonal's life begins at 4 am where she helps her father in milking cattle, cleaning the cow shed, collecting dung and distributing milk. She then cycles to college and spends hours in the library, making notes as she could not afford to buy expensive books or take tuitions, according to The Times of India.
"Most of the time, my chappals would be smeared with the cow dung. When I was in school, I felt ashamed to tell my classmates that I was from a milkman's family. But now, I feel proud of my parents," said an overjoyed Sonal.
The report also mentioned that the exam results were declared in November 2019, however, Sonal was put on the waiting list. When some of the selected candidates did not join the service, the state government issued an order on Wednesday asking the candidates in the waitlist to join.
"We were confident of Sonal's selection. But she fell just one mark short in the general cutoff list and was put in the waiting list," Sonal's mentor Satyendra Singh Sankhla said. But when Sonal got to know about the seven candidates who got selected but didn't join the service, she filed a writ with the Rajasthan High Court in September, this year.
On Wednesday, she got a notification from the High Court to join one of the seven seats that remained vacant.
Also Read: Kerala Govt Announces Scholarship, Wedding Grants For Transgender People
